For the (weird) people who don’t like ice cream, desserts, chocolate, cake, cookies or pudding I have a real treat today: avo ice. You might think that I’m just riding the hipster avocado wave as having occupied toasts, pasta and smoothies the wretched fruit is crawling towards dessert. You are very much free to think so, but I have actually been making this thing since about 2009, when ‘hipster’ solely referred to jeans.
I called it something else then: guacamole sorbet. I thought it wasn’t ice cream really as it had no dairy in it, though fatty avocado does freeze nicely, without forming ice shards. Which is exactly where ice cream makers step into action: breaking up the ice crystals as they simultaneously freeze the mix. The beauty of this recipe is – you don’t need ice cream machine. If you have one of those little wizzy chopper-blenders, you’re in.
In fact I’d argue that it’s better all round – the hassle of giving it a blitz every hour or so notwithstanding – because you can make small amounts of ice cream, different flavours at a time. Obviously, if you have a large, same flavour ice cream loving family, a machine is very useful, but I’m talking me, The Weather Man and a friend who’d sell his soul for ice cream I usually churn it for.
Back to sorbet: having made it and tasted this time, I decided it’s nothing like sorbet, which invariably tastes like – delicious and flavoured, but – water. The avo makes it creamier than that so there we have it.
When and how to eat it? Apart from the above mentioned (weird) people who might want it for dessert, I’d say it’s an excellent and quirky starter, so chalk it up for a summer dinner party. Me, I just keep a tub in the freezer and have some for lunch, with tortilla chips.